Digital Wellness Module

Lesson 5: Who Do You Want to Be?

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My Online Identity

Discussion

TELL YOUR STUDENTS

Let’s take a minute to think about how we interact with different people depending on who they are. You may act differently around your friends than your family members or your teachers at school. You also may act differently depending on the setting or occasion — one way with friends at school and a different way with the same friends when you spend time together outside of school.

We may be all slightly different people depending on where we are and who we’re with. You have a similar ability to manage how you and your content will appear publicly online and it can be helpful to start thinking about how you’d like others to view you on the internet.

Public figures (e.g., those in the music/film/TV industry, political figures, business leaders) do this all the time. By carefully constructing every part of their brand and public presence, from social media content (e.g., photos, videos, text-based posts) to interviews, they are trying to appeal to as many fans or customers as possible. You don’t have to be a public figure with a billion-dollar marketing strategy. But it is useful to think about who might be looking at your online presence and plan how you appear online for the future.

CLASS INTERACTION

Organize students into pairs.

ASK YOUR STUDENTS

• What content do you currently make and/or share online (e.g., videos, music, remixes, blogs, designs, animations)?
• What inspires you to make or share this content?
• Why do you do it? What content do you have your real name and image associated with?
• Is there any content that you would not want to be publicly associated with you? Why not?

CLASS INTERACTION

Give students seven minutes to discuss. And ask the groups to share out.

ASK YOUR STUDENTS

Before we can talk about your future online presence, let’s talk about your future goals. Discuss with your partner:

• Where and what do you want to be in a few years, and how did you first come up with that idea? It’s okay if you have more than one idea or one career that currently interests you.
• What other personal goals do you have that are not related to your career goal(s)?
• What might you do online to help you achieve your future career goals or personal goals?

CLASS INTERACTION

Pass out the “My Online Identity” resource to students.

TELL YOUR STUDENTS

What you do online can help you explore your current interests and also help you discover future passions. Take a few minutes to fill out this resource and reflect on your aspirations in the context of how you present yourself online. Remember that everyone’s online identity may well be different and your own identity will likely evolve based on how your goals and interests change in the future.

Assignment

TELL YOUR STUDENTS

Now that we have reflected on how you view yourself and your interests, let’s think about how you would like to highlight aspects of your identity to others.

Imagine that you are creating a new social media presence that focuses on a particular aspect of your identity. You will be starting from scratch and you will have total liberty to adjust all of the privacy settings and craft content in any way you wish. In a written paragraph, discuss how you might structure this new social media presence to portray your chosen image to your friends and followers. In particular, speak to the following concepts:

• Type of account and platform (e.g., social media, blog)
• Type of content (e.g., photos, videos, text-based posts)
• What would you put in the “About Me” section?
• What kinds of images would you use?
• What would you set your privacy settings to? Would any of these settings depend on the type of content you share?

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